Should I worry about getting a tutor who is from a region that doesn’t speak standard dialect?

7 comments

1. It will be fine. Having lived in Miyazaki and frequenting Osaka and Kumamoto, the accent is different, but not anything as radical as what you’re afraid of. Unless he’s some ojii-san from the sticks.

2. You are overthinking it. Get a base and then worry about an accent.

3. It’s very unlikely to be a problem. Most teachers wouldn’t speak dialect when teaching a foreigner anyway.

4. Most Japanese people can speak hyojungo (standard Japanese) in addition to their local dialect. Unlike with English, people don’t really retain an “accent” when speaking in hyojungo. There might sometimes be tiny traces in their intonation, but the majority of the time it’s almost impossible, even for native speakers, to pin down what region someone is from when they’re speaking hyojungo. Unless you specifically ask your tutor to teach you their local dialect, they will speak and teach hyojungo to you.

5. Oita is relatively close to Tokyo Japanese in accent, enough that if young and speaking formally, it won’t be “wild” by any means. I say go for it, especially if it’s a good fit.

   I *will* say that the accents can be far more different than what the current replies suggest, even among young people. Even while speaking with Tokyo Japanese endings, many regional accents are instantly recognizable as ‘foreign,’ and can also lead to harmless miscommunication.

6. >had learned English in Texas

   I could be entirely wrong here, somebody correct me if I am, but I’m pretty sure American accents are the only one that vary as much as they do within the same country, and pretty much every other country they all have similar if not the same accent (obviously with person by person differences).

7. Unrelated to japanese, but man I’d love to hear this “chinese-texan” accent.